Lovebytes (2002-13)
Freelance roles – Lovebytes 2002 – 2013
I worked with Lovebytes between 2002 and 2013 in various freelance roles including – as a photojournalist and interviewer at Lovebytes International Festival of Digital Arts (documenting the festivals and interviewing high-profile artists and directors), running creative workshops and projects such as Pocket Universe and the Siblings Project for Sheffield Children’s Festival (2009/2010), and assisting on multimedia projects such as Avatars (2009), Fright Cam (2010) and Designosaurs (2011).
About Lovebytes
Lovebytes, founded in 1994, is a digital arts organisation based in Sheffield UK. It has organised an inspiring range of public events which cross the boundaries between art, design, music, technology and science, including international arts festivals, exhibitions, educational projects and workshops. www.lovebytes.org.uk
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Lovebytes Festival Photojournalist & interviewer (2002, 2003 & 2005)
Role/s: Photojournalist, interviewer
I worked as a photojournalist and interviewer during the Lovebytes International Festival of Digital Arts for three consecutive festivals (2002, 2003 and 2005). As well as documenting events across each festival I was lucky enough to interview some amazing directors and digital artists including Peter Greenaway (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, The Tulse Luper Suitcases), Jonathan Caouette (Tarnation), Thomas Köner and Franciso Lopez.
Lovebytes International Festival of Digital Art
Lovebytes explores the cultural and creative potential of digital technology. The festival is a platform for innovative and experimental new work in the fields of digital art, music, film, interactive media and creative software. The programme includes specially commissioned multimedia performances and interactive installations in public spaces supported by film screenings, talks, workshops and educational projects.
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Pocket Universe (2010 & 2012)
Role/s: Workshop facilitator (photography)
I delivered this miniature photography workshop for children based on the work of Slinkachu (Lovebytes at Sheffield Children’s Festival in 2010 & Lovebytes Spring Fayre 2012). It offers a great focus for exploring skills in macro and staged photography, depth of field and composition. In the years since, this style of photography – photographing miniature model worlds – has become popular.
A day of creative technology activities for young people and families including hands-on workshops, interactive art, DIY technologies, chip-tune performances, sonic treasure hunts and lots more.
Organised by Lovebytes as part of the Sheffield Children’s Festival 2010.
Lovebytes Spring Fayre in action
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The Siblings Project 2009
Role/s: Workshop facilitator (photography)
& artist/producer (performance visuals – photography and animation)
The aim of the Siblings Project was to visually bring to life a suite of six songs – A Sheffield Song Book, words by Berlie Doherty and music by Richard Chew – I ran photography and animation workshops with children and young people (mainly brothers and sisters of Sheffield Young Singers), to build a child’s eye view of the playgrounds, museums, football teams, rivers and industrial heritage of Sheffield.
The resulting images and animation created a continuous streaming themed backdrop to the music at an event premiering the Sheffield Song Book during Sheffield Children’s Festival 2009 where the 60 voices of Sheffield Young Singers were accompanied by professional chamber group Ensemble 360 Winds.
Sheffield Young Singers has produced a CD of A Sheffield Song Book. For more info and recordings of 2 of the songs click here.
The Siblings Project was part of The Big Byte. It was a creative collaboration between Sheffield Young Singers and Lovebytes funded by Grants for the Arts with support from South Sheffield City Learning Centre and Sheffield Children’s Festival.
The Big Byte (2009)
The Big Byte was a year-long programme of events supported by Arts Council England and Screen Yorkshire and delivered in partnership by various community organisations in Sheffield including: Sheffield Children’s Festival, Sheffield Young Singers and Showcomotion Film Festival.
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Assisting Lovebytes Media Projects
I have assisted various media arts projects, events and workshops for Lovebytes since 2002 including the following:
Avatars (2009)
Role/s: Workshop facilitator (craft/photography)
& Designer – Large-scale banner exhibition, Sheffield Children Festival
Avatars was a creative technology project aiming to develop creative and digital literacy skills amongst children. A group of 90 children aged 7-8 years took part in a series of workshops and activities, exploring the creative uses of new technologies and learning computer-programming skills. They designed hundreds of their own characters, or avatars, using a mixture of traditional and digital techniques and used these in making their own computer games and interactive art. The children used a programming language called Scratch, open source software so that they could continue developing their own projects at home. You can find out more about Scratch at www.scratch.mit.edu.
The project culminated in a largescale banner exhibition at the Showroom Cinema featuring many of the characters invented as part of the Sheffield Children’s Festival. Avatars character designs by Y3 pupils of Hunter’s Bar Junior School © 2009 Lovebytes Ltd. & the children of Hunter’s Bar Junior School.
Avatars was part of The Big Byte (2009) The Big Byte was a year-long programme of events supported by Arts Council England and Screen Yorkshire and delivered in partnership by various community organisations in Sheffield including: Sheffield Children’s Festival, Sheffield Young Singers and Showcomotion Film Festival.
Find out more about the Avatars project at www.avatars.tumblr.com
Fright Cam (2010)
Role: Fright Cam facilitator & young people supervisor
Fright Cam projected instant huge-scale photographs of Halloween revellers on the side of the City Hall in Sheffield during the city centre event Fright Night. Fright.Cam was produced by Lovebytes working with Vicky Morris and young people from Cube Magazine. Fright Night was organised by Yellow Bus Events.
Some photos from Flight night 2010
Designosaurs (2011)
Role: Installation/workshop assistant & Photographer
Was a digital art project combining craft, computers and the creative imaginations of over 1,500 Sheffield school children, culminating in an interactive exhibition at the Sheffield Children’s Festival 2011.
For photos of the project, click here.